Good morning to all of you Washingtonians who, despite being forced to come in today, are honoring Dr. King today through peaceful resistance to actual work. Rather than confronting authority violently, you can make your dissatisfaction known through idleness and websurfing. We’ll be right here with you.
Then, outside work, maybe do something a little more meaningful to celebrate MLK Day.
Guilty of Wrongful Deeds: D.C. police may have ended a rash of brazen break-ins in Shaw and Logan Circle when they arrested a man at 14th and P streets yesterday and charged him with at least one home invasion. In each of at least four recent break-ins, the armed perps entered through an open door or window, even while the occupant was inside, and made off with cash, credit cards, cameras, and even one victim’s Humvee.
A Stone of Hope Out of the Mountain of Despair: The Post takes an in-depth look at the mass of upcoming redevelopment on the Georgia Avenue corridor in the District. Many hope that Park Place, a $60 million development of new condos, townhouses, and retail now under construction, will serve as the catalyst for a long-anticipated revitalization along the avenue. Others are wary of gentrification erasing an established ambiance of black culture that, to some, represents “the heart and soul of the city.” While accommodating longtime residents and preserving neighborhood culture is a laudable ideal, eliminating boarded up eyesores and reducing crime is as well, and the attention to the corridor is long overdue.
The article runs through the avenue’s troubled past and numerous failed redevelopment attempts, pointing to the “Great Streets” initiative and Mayor Fenty’s personal attention as evidence that the current effort will be more successful. The web article is accompanied by an interactive feature showing several projects now in the works. DCist, of course, was all over this back in August.
Transforming the Jangling Discords: In another appropriately-timed piece for MLK weekend, the Post details the difficulties caused by Montgomery County’s growth morotorium for the District-based Central Union Mission. The Mission, which owns 80 acres in rural Montgomery County, was counting on selling the land to sustain its continued operation, and blames the County Council for complications that have delayed the sale for four years. The county Planning Board has been vocally against the moratorium, calling it a “symbolic act” that is “extremely troubling.”
Briefly Noted: U.S. marshals track down and arrest a North Carolina man in the District who is suspected in the decapitation his own daughter… another PG County Maryland official’s personal tab faces scrutiny… Barack Obama will be in Virginia this week, stumping for local Dems and potentially wooing some early supporters.
This Day in DCist: Last year we challenged the Right’s exclusive claim to patriotism. In 2005, we wondered who the Nats were after.
Photo by xtol7.
